Re: What is wrong with Ada?

[<adaworks@sbcglobal.net>]

"kevin cline" <kevin.cline@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1176332730.826176.286450@y5g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
On Apr 10, 11:31 am, "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mail...@dmitry-kazakov.de>
wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:59:27 GMT, Jeffrey R. Carter wrote:
>
> It is because SW engineering is not engineering.

kc>>You are right about that.  Other engineering disciplines apply
kc>>physical laws to the construction of human artifacts.  There are no
kc>>physical laws governing software.  Were it not for the limitations of
kc>>human intellect, we could instantaneously produce correct, optimal
kc>>machine code to meet any need.  Software engineering attempts to
kc>>define practices for developing reliable software given our limited
kc>>abilities.  It is a social science.

This is an outdated view of engineering.   It is certainly an outdated view
of software engineeering.    It is true that ordinary programming is usually
absent any engineering,    But there are many engineering practices can,
be applied in the design and construction of software.

Engineering was once restricted to the natural world governed by physical
laws.   For many engineers, this is still their parochial view of the field. 
But
engineering continues to evolve, and the meaning of engineering evolves too.

I have posted other comments in this thread about engineering software.  I
will not repeat them here.  But anyone who thinks that software and engineering
are incompatible is simply not keeping up with the progress in the field or
either software or in the field of engineering.

Richard Riehle